halloween

As one of the most densely populated placed on earth, Hong Kong has a very competitive retail market. But deals can be had, if... You're willing to put up with a few ghosts. Today, the haunted house hustle.

Also today, it's been almost 70 years since Shirley Jackson's chilling classic "The Lottery" shocked readers. We'll talk with Jackson's grandson about his graphic adaptation of the story, and with Jackson's biographer about the author's many faces... Comically besieged housewife, channeler of nightmares, witch?

Ghost stories are speculations…little experiments in what could happen in the afterlife. Today, a new collection of ghost stories through the ages explores the appeal of the eerie, the scary, and the previously unimaginable. Plus, we take a tour of what’s called haunted pond in Hillsborough. And, Max Brooks, author of World War Z, helps us assess what may be the perfect Granite State zombie hideout.

In 1934, a weather observer stationed at the peak of Mount Washington recorded a, then record, wind gust of 231 miles per hour. As a point of reference, that’s in the same neighborhood as an F5 tornado.

Even on hot summer day, conditions at the peak can drop below freezing in a matter of minutes – which is just one reason more than 135 people have died in the shadow of Mount Washington since 1859.

And yet, Mount Washington isn’t just Home of the World’s Worst Weather--as a sign at the summit famously boasts--it’s also home to a weather station, where a team of researchers are able to safely live year-round.

Which begs the question: would the Mount Washington Observatory be the perfect place to survive a zombie apocalypse?

Prior to the Civil War, images of war were the stuff of legends and mystery – then came the photographs of Alexander Gardner. Today, the legacy of a photographer who captured the graphic violence of war, and inspired questions about the power and ethics of war photography that are still being discussed today. Plus, we’ll dive into a collection of more than 700 antique cookbooks to find out what scholars can learn by looking at food - and get a taste for some unusual recipes from back in the day.

Kids grow up so fast…and it turns out that girls are growing up even faster. Why is this generation of girls going through puberty much earlier than previous ones? Plus, a conversation about magic, the occult, and rock n’ roll – from Robert Johnson’s mythical deal with the devil, to the coded messages in Led Zeppelin songs, we’ll talk about the dark spiritual rebellion that gave rock its musical edge. And, a conversation with one rock star who traded success for autonomy, and a career making kids music.

"An Actual Duck": I've always found store bought costumes to be a bit lacking in creativity, yes, I am a costume snob. I went to art school, it's a prerequisite. But I think I would applaud loudly if I saw any of these posters in the pop-up Halloween costume shop. If I ever went to those places... - Logan

Forget about spooky black cats, witches, ghosts and goblins; think about what happens to your pumpkin.

Halloween is indeed well-timed to the season of conspicuous death and decay. Forget about spooky black cats, witches, ghosts and goblins! Instead think about what happens to Jack 'O Lantern left to itself over the next several months…

Where I grew up in Connecticut, children trick or treat on Halloween night, after dark, for as long as they possibly can. I called my hometown’s clerk to double check: municipal government has nothing to do with it.

Yet in my current home of Portsmouth, the city website declares “the date and time for 'Trick-or-Treat' activities in Portsmouth this year will be Thursday, October 30th, from 5:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m.”

Author Adam Gidwitz shares the delightfully horrible story of “Ashputtle,” or as you might know her, Cinderella. It’s one of the tales from his new book,The Grimm Conclusion, his third volume of dark, vividly re-told stories that were originally collected by the Brothers Grimm.

Halloween is a perfect time for ghost stories and fairy-tales. Yes...fairy tales. But not the sanitized stuff of Disney Princesses, but the grisly, violent, cautionary tales from which they were derived.

Of course, scary stories are told best by Word of Mouth, so we invited author Adam Gidwitz to share the rather horrible story of “Ashputtle,” or as you might know her, Cinderella. It’s one of the tales from his new book,The Grimm Conclusion, the third volume of delightfully dark, vividly re-told stories originally written by the Brothers Grimm.

Visitors to Salem, Massachusetts, have a surfeit of choices in Halloween season. They can take a “Tales and Tombstones Trolley Tour,” attend the Zombie Prom, Voodoo Ball, or a performance of “Dracula’s Guest.”

The real terror that coursed through the Massachusetts Bay colony from 1692 to ’93 was not the stuff of a night out with the family. More than two hundred people were accused of witchcraft by their neighbors. Nineteen were hanged. Another was pressed to death. Five women died in prison. Historian MarilynneRoach examines the lives of individuals swept up in the trials through surviving documents, invoices, and objects. Her new book is called Six Women of Salem: The Untold Story of the Accused and Their Accusers in the Salem Witch Trials.

With pumpkin season in full swing, many Granite Staters are enjoying baked goods, snacks, and beverages flavored with this signature fall fruit. And then, of course, there's the annual rite of pumpkin carving. Weekend Edition host Amanda Loder talked with TheHeart of New England e-magazine's Marcia Passos Duffy about how to wring pumpkin flavor out of post-Halloween jack-o-lantern remains.

Happy Halloween! Today, a brief escape from the coverage and aftermath of Superstorm Sandy… with trick or treating delayed or canceled in storm-ravaged communities along the east coast, we at Word of Mouth are committed to celebrating the holiday in honor of those who cannot… as advice columnist "Prudie" puts it, if we didn’t celebrate Halloween, wouldn’t that be letting the storm win?

New England's gruesome brush with supernatural hysteria did not end with the Salem witch trials in the 17th century. Almost two centuries later came the great New England vampire panic. Wait… what? Abigail Tucker is a staff writer for Smithosonian magazine – she wrote about historians who are documenting cases when rural residents set aside their Yankee piety and feverishly exhumed graves and mutilated the corpses of suspected blood-suckers. The panic is la

RENEE MONTAGNE, host: Americans are expected to spend nearly $7 billion on Halloween. If you're wondering exactly how, let's go to one street in Concord, New Hampshire, where families take the ghoulish holiday very seriously. New Hampshire Public Radio's Dan Gorenstein reports.